FunkyG on 28/5/2006 at 06:52
Hi everyone, I'm a big fan of SS2 and this morning i decided to graphically upgrade the weapons in the game. I've started with the Assault rifle, and if i can get that working then i will move onwards to the other weapons and eventually make a hires weapon pack upgrade, the main idea here is to keep the feel of the old weapons not create new ones.
So i converted the .bin file to .e then through to .3ds. Imported it to 3dsmax and redid the model. What kind of stuff do I need to keep in mind when creating new meshes for ss2, I'm a 3d modeller by trade and i've never done anything for game content. Do i have to make sure that all the polygons are 3 or 4 sided? is there a maximum poly count for the dark engine? there were 2 blocks included with the original mesh. I'm assuming that one is for the muzzleflash and the other for shell casings or something. so i left them where they were...
Anyway here's what i've made so far... I havent managed to get it back into ss2 yet. (It has alot of errors about removing silver triangles when i try and convert the .e back to .bin, can anyone help me with that one either?)
Inline Image:
http://tk.files.storage.msn.com/x1phBW_nhM6Ssw7MHQQfbwobcj_mUY2rXIkbrfALv-RR7a6PNW20-LrgTy0NAnFi8EXiVqEEg2dSa3acE10N5OcfHDpeE4RamBatx7ECYB98irInCofUMtiZym4o21MaWTgs6nnEDDQsv0This is without textures mind you, seeing as this is my first day at this i dont think its too bad.
Any feedback or help in my issues would be muchly appreciated.
Ultraviolet on 28/5/2006 at 07:46
Looks nice, but please do keep the detail low and use "gourad shading" (I've just read enough on the forums to have heard of it but not sure how to advise) where possible instead, because the Dark Engine is rather finnicky, and overly high-poly stuff might look out of place.
The feel of the AR was more angular originally, and I feel that that is something that should be preserved. And the iron sights seem a bit over-emphasized to me, along with the ribbing on the barrel shroud (whatever it's called).
How about some futuristic optic sighting? (Or at least a miniaturized, integrated version of the stuff we have today. Integration would be the case, because if I remember the objtext for the AR, it was "designed by committee." Unless that was something third-party.)
Maybe some kind of attached undergrip (instead of that barrel heatshield/shroud/whatever) might look better.
Somewhere to attach a sling could be interesting. (Leave the D-rings off, because they wouldn't animate with player movement, but have the part where they attach be there somewhere.)
Since we can't use the light, why have it there at all?
When you texture it, can you make most of it be textured polymer instead of shiny metal? The contrast between the two materials would be pretty cool.
Now, I'll tell you what we really need... a replacement for that tinker-toy laser pistol! The animated light things are unnecessary, and it's white, which sucks... I was thinking something like the pulse pistols in Farscape would be hot shit in SS2, and even though the gun is weak in-game, I'd still use it just for that reason alone.
TF on 28/5/2006 at 10:27
That's about 10 times more detailed than what SS2 can handle, you need to stay around 1024 polys.
The model is pretty good as it is but you'll have to cut a lot of non-essential details and fake them with textures if you want it in ss2.
Sluggs on 28/5/2006 at 12:03
Very nice model indeed but they're right, it's far too detailed! :wot: A shame really. :(
Don't worry about the sliver triangle errors, your model will still be OK in SS2/Dromed, once you have the low poly version of it of course.
Just to give you some idea on how detailed that model is... If you were just to use the barrel, with it's sight and buckle, that alone is too detailed for the engine!
Livo on 28/5/2006 at 12:35
I don't think there's any real point having an electro-optical sight or scope on the assault rifle if it's not useable ingame. Ditto for sling attachment points and light.
The barrel and handguard don't really match the rest of the receiver; it looks a modified AR15 barrel and handguard has been glued onto the back of another weapon. A more squared off front section would better suit the model.
The forward assist on the left hand side looks a little odd as it's a smooth circular object on a very chunky looking receiver.
Still, it's a pretty good model (I'd love to have a crack at modelling) for a first day of work :thumb:
Nameless_Voice on 28/5/2006 at 13:20
What TF said pretty much sums it up. Also, the maximum texture size is 256x256 pixels, 256 colours (palette entry zero being reserved for transparency).
FunkyG on 28/5/2006 at 20:41
Thanks guys... it should be quite easy to dumb the models down to sub 1024 polys... the gun itself has the exact same shape as the original ss2 ar15, including the under-barrell mounted light thingy (of course i'm not a gun buff, i dont know the first thing about them) all i did was do a google image search for Ar15 style guns and basically modify the ones i saw. Most had these carry handle thingys on the top, but it didnt put that in because it would've broken the mold. Livo, you sound like you know what you're talking about, i'll square up the front bit some more. but i dont know what a forward assist is?
link some pictures of an ar15 you want me to make this look like and i'll have no trouble.
same with the farscape gun.
Thanks again guys, your comments are invaluable!
RocketMan on 28/5/2006 at 21:31
.......:eww:
Funky I have gotten a lot of those sliver triangle messages in the beginning and I found most of them were due to mesh errors like open faces, spikes, double faces, etc. Use STL check on your model all the time to make sure its perfect. And i'm not sure if this is true or not but making polygons that are itty bitty and/or jagged might screw it up too.
TF: 1024 pollies??? is that a target or is that actually a software limitation? I was under the impression that any amt of pollies would work.
IceNine on 29/5/2006 at 03:00
Just throwing this in here... 1024 tri is a nice safe number. So far I've been able to import up to about 2300 tri so long as the geometry is squeaky clean, but it seems there's a sharp rise in failure rate above that. I'm assuming it's due to the software capable roots of Dark ... but I'm no expert on it so the ascription is currently speculation on my part.
